What’s working now on social media in powder coating

June 28, 2023 by pcnearme

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.20.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]In our exclusive interview with Danielle Miller, Owner of Miller Media Management, we uncover some of the strategies powder coating companies can use when posting to social media platforms like Instagram & Facebook.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vc1ertl3zQ[/embedyt]

RossKote (Kim Scott): [00:00:00] In this episode of the Powder Coater Podcast, we introduce you to Danielle Miller and welcome her as our podcast, first resident guest. She’s a media strategist who’s well versed in powder coating. Danielle has been featured in HubSpot in Huffington Post, and she’s here to talk about what’s now working in social.

Find out why using the newest features on Instagram will get you noticed and how to build a stellar profile. She explains how Pinterest can lead to website growth and why Facebook wants you to join a group. We’ll also cover how to use partnerships to gain access to more followers and clients, as well as what the must have hashtags are for powder coaters.

It’s all about building marketing strategies for your brand on social. Let’s get ready to level up your powder coater game.[00:01:00]

Welcome back to episode 11. I’m Kim Scott, your host of the Powder Coater Podcast, where you’re listening to influencers and, we’re interviewing and covering trending topics so that powder coaters can effectively learn and grow their business. And today I am super stoked. I’ve got a girl on my side who has been my partner in social media and my group, my go-to guru.

Fortunately she resides right here in Maui, Hawaii. She’s the owner of a top rated social media marketing company here. Her mission is to help entrepreneurs [00:02:00] anchor on results when it comes to marketing their businesses online. And her articles and presentations have been mentioned in HubSpot Social Media Today, and Social Media Examiner.

She’s also a prolific Pinterest producer, so to speak. So welcome aboard, Danielle Miller. How are you today?

Danielle Miller: Hey Kim. Doing great. Super stoked to be on the Powder Coat podcast today and talk about marketing. You know, that’s my, my jam. That’s where I get nerdy.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, and you and I met back in 2015 when I was struggling with social media. I had not ever tried Instagram, didn’t really know much about Facebook in, in terms of business Facebook. And you and I collaborated on a project together for another business I owned at the time and [00:03:00] really kind of sidelined Maui Powder Works. Because we hadn’t really taken ourselves too seriously and you were there for me.

You were there to review my, and give me feedback on my website, my approach to, the market, my message to the market and who my audience was. So I really do thank you and appreciate everything that you’ve done for me, and I know that you have something very valuable to share with our listeners today.

So I’m happy that you’re here.

Danielle Miller: Thanks. Yeah. We have a lot of big changes happening on social media right now and, it made for perfect timing to hop on and let all the powder coaters of the world know about what is the latest and greatest, what’s, what’s working now.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, and I think this perfectly segues with a lot of what our previous podcast was about with, Jace Kaser, from Kaser coating about how he markets his business, and does social media and how [00:04:00] he produces content on whatever platform he’s using. So I’m happy that we’re here to discuss maybe a little bit more in detail about how to. Bring a balance to your social media cuz it can get overwhelming if you don’t know where to start or how to do it.

And also how does that convert into leads and sales and new customers, without having to spend a bazillion dollars just in advertising. And we’re not gonna really address advertising today. We’re gonna talk about just the organic reach that you can do. With some of the things that we’re gonna talk about today, some of the, some of the ideas, that you can implement today in your business, Right?

Danielle Miller: Absolutely. And help you get focused, so you don’t feel overwhelmed and you know, kind of what, what are the new trendy things and what are the tried and true things that are always working?

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. [00:05:00] I think that’s kind of the problem is sometimes you can get really burnt out for those that have experience with instagram and social media and what it’s like out there already. We are gonna address some of the more advanced concepts as well in this podcast. And, you know, for the new guys out there that need to get started, I hope to maybe give you a little bit of encouragement or confidence that you can do this.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Listen Now” _builder_version=”4.20.2″ global_module=”20170″ saved_tabs=”all” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Listen Now

[button link=”https://link.chtbl.com/powdercoaterpodcast?utm_source=chartable+smart+link” color=”orange” newwindow=”yes”] Click Link[/button]

The voice of custom coating.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Because, you know, if you’ve been on social media, you know, you know how exhausting it can be. And you know, sometimes you just need to take a break and it’s okay to do so. But when you take that break, how do you jump back into it, because as you know, social media changes all the time.

And so that’s what we’ve got you here for is to give us the latest, greatest on Facebook and Instagram. So let’s hop into this.

Danielle Miller: Yes, let’s dive right in. Okay, so, let’s start with Instagram. And the reason I like to start there is cuz if you’re somebody who is overwhelmed with creating content [00:06:00] for every one of your platforms, then you need to be thinking of Instagram as the top platform that you create for and let.

The content you create on Instagram, trickle down to your Facebook and trickle down to your Twitter and trickle down to your Pinterest. So let’s start with Instagram. The latest and greatest on Instagram right now is “Reels”, and that is a contender for TikTok. It’s basically, just the same way that Instagram came in and copied Snapchat and integrated the same features that Snapchat offered right into the Instagram platform.

They’ve now integrated a lot of the same features that were on TikTok, right into Instagram with reels. So reels are, at the moment, still a bit clunky, but what’s happening with them is if you’re participating in reels and creating reels, you are actually getting. A lot of preferential treatment in terms of getting your content featured on that Instagram Explorer tab.

So we talked about, you know, today’s focus really being organic reach, that unpaid [00:07:00] reach, that reach that anybody can get as long as they’re creating quality content. And the the important thing here is that if you can get your content featured in that explorer tab, then you have a very high chance of being introduced to a lot more people for free.

It’s like getting a free ad on Instagram. So the, the short and quick on reels is that they are slightly longer videos that allow you to overlay text on top of your video and also do transitions between your, videos. So you see sometimes people come in like you might be showing a rim, right?

You’re showing a before and after. Is the concept of the reel. And you might show a rim, take a little video of it. Then when it comes out of the processes and it’s completely done, and like right before you’re giving it to the customer, you can now overlay that before picture of the rim, video of the rim. Right with your brand new video of the [00:08:00] rim, and have it transition within this Instagram reels video. And overlay text that says, you know, this process took this long. But the result was amazing. And here’s what the client had to say. And you can fit all of that in as long as you can fit it in, in a short period of time.

They’re really like the 15 second. Now you can go up to 30 seconds with your reel. Those are really, really well received these days. .

RossKote (Kim Scott): Wow. So that’s something new because I had been guessing about the reels and we kind of took a step back from Instagram and sure enough, right as we were moving into our new shop. That’s right when reels was getting launched. And of course I missed out. So it’s good that we’re talking about this. Of course I’m not on TikTok, but a lot of people are, and this is a great way to kind of learn a little bit more, and maybe you just start with reels.

I don’t know, do you have to build up your profile first? I mean, do we wanna kind of backtrack a little bit or[00:09:00] if someone wanted to get started or just maybe only has a handful of followers right now, do you suggest they go directly into reels or still continue to build up their profile?

Danielle Miller: So I think it’s great to do both simultaneously because, as long as you’re using the appropriate hashtags and whatnot in, in your post, you’re gonna end up getting that organic reach and attracting your followers. And then with the reels, Instagram’s gonna place you in that Instagram Explorer feed if you’re getting enough engagement on your reels and for the followers that you already have.

Let’s say you’ve done the thing where you’ve invited your customers, you’ve invited your friends and family, and you’ve made it up to maybe 250 followers on Instagram. You know, you’re just getting started. Now you can really develop some tight relationships with those 250 people by participating in reels, cuz Instagram is gonna show that content to those people.

You know, it’s like, it’s almost as [00:10:00] if it bypasses the algorithm, right now because it’s a new thing they really want it to take off. So I would say, yeah, you gotta get the basics right. So you have to make sure your Instagram bio is solid. That means you’re not telling people. About what you offer in terms of services and instead you’re telling people why you’re worth following on Instagram.

And also with your bio that you’ve got your website link in there cuz that’s the only clickable link you’re gonna have on your Instagram account until you have 10,000 followers. and that you’ve taken the initiative to go ahead and become an Instagram business profile so that you get the insights and analytics about your content, because that’s the only way you are gonna know what’s working and what’s not, so that you can focus your efforts on the things that are actually producing results.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, I think, you’re hitting on some pretty key points about Instagram that I think [00:11:00] commonly get overlooked. From when I’ve looked at other coaters profiles and stuff, is this lack of the profile or, you know, lack of information on the profile. I know we’ve kind of hashtag stuff on our profile.

We’ve kind of put in powder coating as a hashtag within the profile. Is that not valid anymore to do? Do you still recommend that?

Danielle Miller: I still recommend putting, let’s say, one to two relevant hashtags in the profile. Although, honestly, I haven’t seen the return come in. There’s no way to really track if your profile is really being featured under those hashtags.

What I have found is that if somebody tends to follow that hashtag, then you are more likely to show up in the recommended profiles after they follow somebody else who’s been using that hashtag. . So that’s kind of the benefit about putting it in your profile. But keep it short, You know, this isn’t like when you stick those 30 hashtags in [00:12:00] your caption or in your first comment.

This is one or two core hashtags. I recommend one be geographic, right? So for, for us here in Maui, you’re hashtag tagging Maui. If you’re in London, you’re gonna hashtag London, right? And the other one be industry specific. So powder coating. Something very specific to the, your style or aesthetic could also work.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Right, like if you’re just doing break calipers or, certain kinds of rims or, you know, certain kinds of customers that have like, you know, customized, race cars or something like that, that makes sense. Totally, I mean, pander to your audience, really. I mean, who is it that’s coming to your shop and who do you wanna get more business from?

Danielle Miller: Yep, definitely.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_shop posts_number=”3″ _builder_version=”4.20.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/et_pb_shop][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

RossKote (Kim Scott): So do the reels translate into the Facebook feed, or is it just still Instagram stories to Instagrams, to Facebook stories?

Danielle Miller: So Instagram stories to [00:13:00] Facebook stories is the flow. However, with reels, you have the ability when you’re uploading them to send them to your story. So in that way, you can put a clip of your reel into your story and send that also to Facebook.

And that’s one way to go ahead and reuse that content. And in essence, just think of, with stories for those of you who aren’t using them yet, I wanna encourage you to get ahead of the curve now because the trend is actually to post less and less in your newsfeed and post more and more in stories.

So I’m seeing like the big influencers, the people who are really on top of their Instagram game are posting where they used to post every day in their Instagram newsfeed. They’re now posting. Maybe two or three times a week in their newsfeed and posting every day in their stories. So that’s how much more importance the big players are putting on Instagram stories right now.

And [00:14:00] reels are gonna compliment your stories because you’re able to share them directly to your stories and your feed.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Okay, well, let’s slow this roll down because now I’ve got an issue with that in a sense that it’s harder to track the analytics in stories because the analytics in stories is not as robust as it is in the profile, correct?

Danielle Miller: Oh, very true. Very true. I mean, you, you’re only getting 14 days history, first of all, so that’s tough. And you’re really just seeing about, you know, who tapped forward, who tapped back, But what you will notice is that if you’re more active in stories. Within your insights, those that count of the people who are discovering you and doing profile visits, those numbers change.

Those numbers increase. Especially the profile visits and in direct messages actually. So direct messages and profile visits are gonna increase dramatically as a result of [00:15:00] being more active in stories.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Well, that’s an interesting statistic there, you know, because that’s really where as a powder coater, that’s where you want your people to go, your audience to go.

Definitely start that conversation about rims or how much for this, or how much for that or, and also, you know, click through to my website or my, my landing page or whatever. So that’s actually interesting. So that’s what the statistics, that’s what they’re finding out now.

Danielle Miller: Yeah. That they’re definitely, they have that heightened engagement and the action that you’re taking on them is direct messages. So it instantly moves people from just being a commenter, you know, or just liking your post into starting a private direct message with them right off the bat where you can start talking to them about their needs and answering their questions.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, I hadn’t noticed that before, but I’m gonna have to start paying attention to that now because, [00:16:00] you know, I was kinda getting that organically happening just with my profile picks and stuff and my feed. But, that definitely changes the way I’m gonna approach Instagram now.

And what about Facebook’s stories? Does anybody care? Or is that just something that is just another one of those Facebook features that nobody cares about.

Danielle Miller: So the shortened skinny on Facebook stories is that they are, at this point, they’re just so easy to forward your Instagram stories to Facebook, and you’re getting featured at the top of the newsfeed.

So every time someone opens their app, if you’ve posted to your Facebook stories recently, you’re gonna be one of the four or five stories featured at the top, which is an opportunity to get your brand in front of people. So if we’re talking about easy wins. I would call Facebook stories an easy win. It’s not that you’re gonna necessarily get the direct message or get the sale from there, but it’s like if you’ve, if someone’s saying, Hey, I’m gonna give you a [00:17:00] free billboard on the highway, as long as you give me the content that you want me to put on the billboard, would you take it?

Sure. You know, so I think that Facebook stories are an opportunity just to get your brand in front of people again.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, that’s a valid point. All right, let’s move on to Facebook then. You know, we know how difficult it is to have a Facebook business page these days without having to spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in advertising every year.

Any changes on that front? I mean I see that there’s user functionality that’s changing for businesses to make it much easier to manage. Other than that, what else has changed in Facebook or is that the change?

Danielle Miller: So, yeah, let’s talk about that because that’s a big one that people might not know about.

In terms of user functionality that’s making it easier for people to manage their Facebook page, go to Google, type in Creator Studio. Facebook Creator Studio is [00:18:00] a free tool offered by Facebook that allows you to preschedule all of your Facebook posts and Instagram. From a desktop computer or they have a kind of wonky app for the phone as well.

And, it’s just really streamlines the process of getting your content posted. Plus it also keeps a record of all of your posts with their reach, their engagement, their comments, that you can quickly look at. So I’ve found that using Creator Studio is a really nice tool for kind of systemizing your social media marketing in terms of like, you’re gonna sit down once a month or once a week and schedule out your posts for Instagram and Facebook so that you know, you don’t have to babysit your Facebook account. You know, you’re just there really to monitor your notifications at that point. And to the other point, yeah, there’s a different change happening.

A lot of business owners are getting super frustrated with the limited organic reach from their Facebook page. I [00:19:00] mean, unless you’re getting shares. It’s really tough to reach people organically. You could have worked your tail off to get a following of a thousand people or 5,000 people and you’re seeing your posts reach, you know, maybe 200, 300 people, out of the thousand that have said, I really wanna see your content.

So the solution, right now, the trending thing, and the thing that I see getting hotter and hotter are Facebook groups. So it’s no longer about having a Facebook business page that puts your business and your brand first. Instead, it’s about being the admin, and being in control of a community of people interested in a topic.

So you create a Facebook group around, you know, well, you could do powder coating in, you know, London, right? So you could have a geographic region and an industry, or you could go specific and be like, you know, amazing rims spotted in [00:20:00] Massachusetts, right? And, and by being the admin of a group where people can feel like they can share content into it and contribute, you’re really building a community.

Which is stronger than just building your own Facebook page, which is all about you.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Become a patron” _builder_version=”4.20.2″ global_module=”20171″ saved_tabs=”all” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Support the Show

[button link=”https://patron.podbean.com/rosskote” color=”black” newwindow=”yes”] Click Here[/button]

Get featured content. MPW swag, shoutouts & more.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

RossKote (Kim Scott): Well, I have to tell you, it’s pretty interesting out there these days with powder coating and Facebook groups. And the reason why they’re exploding right now is because forms are, I don’t wanna say they’re dead, but they’re kind of what people used to go to for information.

But it seems. Powder coating is growing so quickly today that, it seems like the information that can come forward in a group can happen so quickly in order to get the answers to, you know, a post or like a troubleshooting post. Or, “Hey, can you help me out with this?” Or, “What should I try [00:21:00] here? Hey, check out this, project I did”.

It’s kind of an all around for powder coaters to go today, and it seems like every time I look there is a new, powder coating group started. I mean, it’s just changing weekly. I am currently, at the time of this recording, blocked on one of a fast growing powder coating, groups. I just found out. So, primarily because, you know, I think that there are some, sort of approach differences within the group. And, it sort of had been building and maybe coming to a head. And that’s the problem sometimes is you do have someone, that thinks of a group to be a certain way, and then, it maybe changes or people can disagree.

But the thing is that of the reason why I got into Facebook groups. Is not [00:22:00] just to promote my podcast or my content or any of that, it’s just that I found that so many, of the, of the existing groups could turn negative really quickly, because it’s competitive, rather than more helpful and that I felt like there needed to be some kind of a force in there to kind of just answer the questions people had without any kind of slight or agenda or, sales pitch kind of thing. Right. So…

Danielle Miller: Totally.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. I mean, you know, it can vary from group to group about what its content is. Most of the groups that are out there today are just general groups. They don’t really have one slant or the other, but you’ve certainly given us ideas on how to, focus in. Because the whole point of the groups is to be engaging and to get the questions answered or to get the help that you need, quickly.

Because the forums sometimes can take too long to get that answered because you’re based on people logging in or going [00:23:00] there, going to that site. Whereas Facebook is just, the engagement level is just huge.

Danielle Miller: Definitely. And Facebook has been pushing groups like crazy. So you know, if you start your own group, even if you’re starting kind of from scratch, if you can get that first wave of engagement and, and be posting on the regular and getting people to contribute to the discussion, they’ll start recommending your group to everybody who has similar categories and you can get your group to grow pretty fast. I mean, the other thing I wanna tell people about groups is like, you might think like, Oh, I can’t wait to have a group with like 10,000 members in it, or I can’t wait to have a group with a hundred thousand members in it.

Trust me, I’ve been an admin of a group with 10,000 members in it, and it sucks. It’s super hard to manage. So, get yourself to a hundred members, get yourself to 250 members and do a fricking celebratory dance. Because honestly, if you can get [00:24:00] really tight with a hundred or 200 people, think about the referrals that could bring you, right?

Don’t look at the group members as the people who will become your customers. Look at them as people that are going to become your friends and want to refer you business. And that’s gonna take the pressure off for the sale and really do exactly what you said, Kim, which was put your value first.

Put out the priority to answer people’s questions and just be of service first. And from there, the referrals will come in. So, Definitely, I like the idea of smaller, great groups that are, are super targeted in what they wanna talk about.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, I think that it’s definitely opened up for powder coating, subject matter, and it’s definitely working in a more positive direction.

But, not without, its pitfalls. And I’m sure that we’re working through it. Okay. So what, are there any [00:25:00] other platforms to, that we wanna talk about today that, changes are happening to?

Danielle Miller: Well after that intro, like, how could I not talk about Pinterest?

Right. So, Yeah, I freaking love Pinterest. For those of you who think Pinterest is just for housewives and, and homemakers and people looking up recipes, like you should look at the Pinterest report that most recently came out. They put out Pinterest themselves, put out their holiday guide and the amount of people that are on Pinterest with the intent to shop for things, for products or services or plan big projects like.

Updating their gate at their house or, you know, redoing their car. These things are super popular on Pinterest and all you need to have a really great Pinterest presence is a stream of high quality photos [00:26:00] and videos, which powder coaters are getting all the freaking time. Every single time you guys have a project, you’re getting sick photos of what you’re creating.

Yeah, uploading those to Pinterest, making sure that that image is linking back to your own website and then categorizing your pictures into however you like. You can do it by color, you can do it by, item, like you can have a board just about rims. You can have a board about architectural design.

That method of using Pinterest. Totally helps your SEO. Okay, so for those of you who didn’t realize, a killer Pinterest game is going to improve how you rank on Google, because every time someone’s repinning your images, it’s creating more back links to your website and telling Google your website is full of awesome content. [00:27:00] Pinterest is great.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I think one of the hardest things about Pinterest is just learning the platform and it seemed like they had just done a recent change or update the face of it or to the user experience level where I went there after a couple. I mean, it just, had happened recently.

Everybody, all the platforms are changing their game. Facebook, Instagram. And it just seems like we’re in that time period, or that pattern or that, you know, that time where things change. And I went there and it’s like even the, the app is different, and I just really had to reorient myself around it again.

And I’m like, Wait, this is like, it seemed like it was. Less user-friendly for the business poster or the, you know, and more user-friendly to the, to the pinner, I guess. And it should be, that’s what it’s there for. But, trying to find my analytics or any of that stuff, it was complex.

But I do see some, Instagrammers, [00:28:00] have Pinterest accounts. And they’re succeeding, even if they’re not necessarily selling a product like. A powder or some other related product to powder coating. They’re just posting their Instagram or they’re posting some pictures or a blog post.

And I am seeing some other people doing it pretty well out there too, and are getting that message. So, yeah, I think that’s, that’s a great way to end kind of the update on platforms and social media. It’s a learning curve on Pinterest, just like Instagram and Facebook. But, of the features you’ve mentioned or the benefits.

It’s definitely a playing out in our game for sure. So, talk about partnerships as we switch over, to the next segment here. What are partnerships? What are you talking about?

Danielle Miller: Yeah. Right on. So with partnerships, the important thing to remember is like this discussion is all about organic reach, right?

So we’re not talking about advertising and when, when you’re not dedicating money to an ad budget, you need to find other ways [00:29:00] to quickly reach audiences. And so a partnership could look like you partnering with, let’s say you have some like B2B business, like there’s another business out there that is a client of yours and you wanna talk about their business.

Like that’s a fantastic partnership. And that might look like you’re creating some posts on social media and tagging them in your posts and tagging them in your caption as well. And, Like, take it to stories, right? We talked about Instagram stories. If you are posting a picture of a product and you know, the partners that you work well with, whether it’s like the metal fabricators or it’s somebody else in the whole design process.

Maybe it’s an architect, maybe it’s a designer. You wanna be tagging their accounts in your stories about projects that you guys have worked on. Because it allows them in a single tap to reshare your story to all of their [00:30:00] followers.

So that’s a super easy win for how to get big organic reach without spending ad dollars.

RossKote (Kim Scott): We’ve actually done exactly that in our Instagram and in our blog posts and stuff, and it’s amazing. Especially on a blog post, I’ll look back at the analytics and, and it’s amazing how many people have clicked on, that restaurant website or that welder’s website.

And I can actually add up how many times people have clicked on it. It works and not to get too deep because I know we we’re short on time. But, we will be producing, top 25, ideas that you and I both have proven in powder coating, specific to powder coating.

And how we can utilize this list of, different post types, for either Facebook or Instagram or Pinterest. And they all work fabulously. But the main takeaway for social [00:31:00] media is that you are educating your client or your audience, whether it’s something like, making an appointment or like how to make an appointment or how to book or how to drop off, rims.

When do you come in? What do I need from you? Are we full service or do you need to take your rims off and bring ’em to us? What’s the difference between someone that you know, doesn’t or does, you know? It also, I think I found that inspiration in inspiring our audience to the potentialities of color or making your rims look new or just giving people that inspiration that they need to like, “Yeah, I can get this done”.

And then also just kind of telling your story is another. Or even just talking about your services, or the backstory behind a project, sort of, you know, just, obsessing about those things. Would you [00:32:00] agree?

Danielle Miller: Oh, fully, these days on social media, it’s all about nailing the story and, and being of service, meaning answering the frequently asked questions.

One of my favorite tips. Kind of collecting those questions is, a lot of us get those questions via email. Like a customer, you know, maybe you’re talking with a customer about a product and either they’ve phoned you or they’ve emailed you and they’ve got a question like, you know, do I need to take my rims off?

Or you guys full service? You do that for me? And keep a little bank of those questions. So whether you are like BCCing another email address, like go into Gmail, create a FAQs for my company@gmail.com and just BCC that email address every time you’re answering a question for a customer that you’ve heard before, that you think other people are gonna have that same question, and all of a sudden you just go to that inbox, that FAQs for my company@gmail.com, inbox and like [00:33:00] it’s full of all of these questions and prewritten answers that you can now copy and paste into your social media content.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I’ve done that. In terms of like, especially sometimes when you have to go through a very lengthy email to explain to a customer; particularly architectural customers, cause they wanna know more about, you know, the durability or longevity of the finish that you’re giving them. And I can’t tell you how many times I have written that same paragraph over and over. And I finally got it straight and realized I should just save this and put it into a blog post, which I ended up doing on our gate post that we just put out on Pinterest about how to get your gate finished. From start to finish, do you get a pre-made gate or do you get a custom fab?

And what, you know, substrate do you use? What finish do you want? How do you do this? And it turned into like a 2000 word,[00:34:00] blog post, which was amazing. I can’t believe I actually had the time to write that thing. The landmark post, happy to have miles stoned it, and I’m ready to put that one off to the side.

So, before we wrap up, let’s talk about one last thing, and that is hashtags, because that’s where I see maybe, a lack of effort, about hashtags. Which hashtag specifically do we use for the powder coater or custom coating? And we can go through, I have a list of them that I use. Let’s talk about hashtags.

Danielle Miller: Yeah, sure. So the quick and dirty on hashtags is number one, you gotta have a strategy. That’s the thing is sometimes I don’t think it’s the lack of effort. I think it’s simply a lack of strategy. People have no idea how to use them. Here’s the, the best tip, simplest tip I can give you for hashtags is stop using hashtags that have over 2 million posts associated with them.

If you’re using hashtag rainbow and it’s got 8 million posts [00:35:00] associated with it. You are wasting one of your 30 hashtags completely wasting it because you will not show up in top posts for that. So all you’re gonna do with a hashtag like that is attract the spam commenters. Instead, what I want you to do is get a little more creative.

Like did you know that when you take a hashtag, let’s say like hashtag. Just powder coating, Right? And then you add an emoji to it that at that point, it’s actually a completely different hashtag. So, You might start to find niche hashtags that have only been used, you know, let’s say 50,000 posts or 20,000 posts, associated with them.

And those hashtags, you actually have a chance of showing up in top posts for them, and that should be your goal. Your goal should be to. Identify the hashtags for which when you use them, your post gets in top post for that hashtag. That should make [00:36:00] up like 20 of your 30 hashtags that you’re using should be ones that you wanna end up in top post for.

So, The other 10 hashtags that you’re using, you’re gonna put a branded hashtag in there. You know, so hashtag Maui Powder Works, or whatever your company is. Make sure you’re branding your hashtag. You’re also gonna do like geographic hashtags. People forget about those all the time. Like definitely for us, you know, it’s hashtag Maui, Hawaii, or it might be a town here or a town where you guys are located.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Use your geographic hashtags. Then I want you to be thinking seasonal. Like what is in season right now? It’s Halloween, 2020, right? Start posting your orange rims and any other products that you’ve done that are black or orange. Like just start posting those pictures right now with hashtag Halloween 2020.

And that’s because right now that’s a trending seasonal hashtag. So those are my core three tips about hashtags.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Oh, you know what? As soon as we post this, [00:37:00] I cannot wait to see and go to Instagram and start to see exactly what you just said. Because I literally can see that sometimes in the groups and on Instagram is the minute we publish something on this podcast, people get right to it cuz that was a brilliant.

And it’s so overlooked, yet so easy, and so like, just like, duh, but you know, we get so wrapped up in the day to day of just even taking a picture or or doing a before and after. It’s really hard just to get that going or get that started. I know that we’ve kind of, slacked off on our Instagram game.

I’m looking forward to getting kind of right back in. In fact, I have it right on the, my top 10 lists of things to do this week is to get out three new posts and not just rely on a podcast post to put in my Instagram feed, but to really, catch up with all the projects that Ross has done since we [00:38:00] moved into our new shop.

But it’s hard when you get off that horse, that rail line and then you gotta hop back on again. It’s hard to get back into it too once you’ve been off. So it’s, It’s just a challenge, but it’s also okay to just take a break and then listen to a podcast like this where we have an expert in social media.

Get us inspired to do more. Well that’s awesome, Danielle. I think this is a great place to just end, so tell us how do we get on hold of you? What’s your website? All that good.

Danielle Miller: Sure you can find me everywhere at mmm social media. So website mmmsocialmedia.com.

Instagram mmm, social media, Facebook, facebook.com/mmmsocialmedia. Same thing for Pinterest, mmm Social Media. So, and that’s mmm, like, Mm, it tastes really good. So, I can’t wait to see you guys there. And I do a ton of online workshops, so you know, if you guys are looking for some serious [00:39:00] training, that’s pretty dang affordable.

I’m doing livestream workshops at least once a month.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Oh, wow. That’s something new because I’ve been seeing you like locally in public spaces where you have your in class stuff, but I guess because of Covid 19, things have kind of changed up for you.

Danielle Miller: Totally. Yep. We’re doing a lot of online teaching this season.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Well, that’s good because I think your message is, so well put and so easy to grasp. I obviously saw that in a lot of the classes that I attended in, you know, in person where you have completely changed someone’s attitude towards social media. I know we all start up in these classes going, I don’t know why I’m here.

There’s nothing that this pod, you know, that this, Instagram can do for me. I’ve tried, I’ve tried this, I’ve tried that. So, I always walk away with something new and a new understanding if it’s, you know, coming from whatever you’re teaching. So thank you for that. And yes, you [00:40:00] should go check out our website.

I’ll make sure to put a link in the podcast page, so that you can click to it very easily. And we’d like to thank our supportive followers and fellow powder coaters out there. I hope you’ve learned something new about your Instagram game, and your powder coating business. Please, comment, below and, share the podcast, follow us and share it on Facebook groups.

If you have a topic you’d like to discuss, just email us at info@mauipowderworks.com. Aloha!

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”be our guest” _builder_version=”4.20.2″ background_color=”#D6D6D6″ global_module=”20173″ saved_tabs=”all” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Be Our Next Guest

Do you have a topic to discuss? Product or service? We’re looking for you. Help us build a community around powder coating.

Contact Us
Info@Maui Powder Works.com

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”2022 blog wrap up” _builder_version=”4.20.2″ global_module=”18725″ saved_tabs=”all” global_colors_info=”{}”]

About us

RossKote is committed to sharing their experience in metal coatings, painting, and restoration so customers & powder coaters can navigate the process of powder coating and make the best choices for getting their projects done.

RossKote regularly contributes helpful videos on his blog and YouTube channel.

Join us. As we build a powder coating community online to share our passion for performance finishes by subscribing to RossKote’s Powder Coater Podcast

Connect with us. Comment below. What would you like to know more about? I love to answer everyday questions to the consumer market wants to know about powder coating.

MAUIPOWDERWORKS.COM
Copyright 2016-2022©
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Frustrations to Finishing with Jase Kaser

August 2, 2022 by pcnearme

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.17.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]In our exclusive interview with Jase Kaser, Owner of Kaser Blastings and Coatings, we uncover some of the everyday frustrations of running a powder coating business and how to overcome them.

We feature an up and coming coater, Jase Kaser. I stumbled upon his blog one day and discovered a fountain of inspiration, like no other. If you’re looking for solace in the life of powder coating this young man lends you a reprieve. He shares pearls of wisdom about the subtleties of coating, from a self-reliant mindset and covers everything from lessons learned in technical problem solving, to managing customers and employee expectations.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I call him the Ralph Waldo Emerson of powder coating. I hope you will call him a friend. Follow along as he melds his life experience with growing his powder coating biz, get ready to level up your powder coater game.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Welcome to episode 10, I’m Kim Scott, your host of the RossKote Powder Coater Podcast. Where we interview influencers in the industry and cover trending topics. So powder coaters can effectively learn and grow their business. Today, we’re reaching out to interview Jase Kaser from Kaser Blasting and Coating he’s out of Nebraska and I was attracted to his story.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0li-E1DqZ3E[/embedyt]

RossKote (Kim Scott): As a powder coater or the wife of a powder coater, because he has an approach on his blog that addresses the subtleties of coating things, the struggles with it, learning the business and addressing his customer’s expectations. And I found it very inspirational. I wanted to bring this podcast to you today because I found it’s almost like he has, it’s a training manual and a journal all in one.

RossKote (Kim Scott): So I’m happy to welcome Jase Kaser to the show. Welcome.

Jase Kaser: Thanks for having me on.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. Now I found you a Tim Pennington. So I’m just going to give a shout out to Tim Pennington of the finishings and coatings online magazine. If you don’t follow Tim, he usually is giving featured focuses and addresses all kinds of coating content in the coatings and finishing from powder coating.

RossKote (Kim Scott): So liquid coatings and beyond. So if you don’t follow Tim or you don’t get his email in your inbox go ahead and head over to his finishing and coating magazine online. Just Google it. And you will find you can sign up to get his newsletter, but recently a Kaser got featured in his magazine and I enjoyed reading it.

RossKote (Kim Scott): What was said in the magazine is just a feature of, they were just featuring you as a coater. But there was one thing that really brought an attention to me was just an introduction to your business and stuff. But I really found something that you said that was really compelling and that you’re grateful for your customers for the positive reviews and stuff.

RossKote (Kim Scott): But later on you said the more transparent and communicative, we are, the more satisfied our customers are likely to be. And that’s the one reason why I wanted to bring you on the show, because I do think that there are barriers to market and communicate. And especially when communicating.

RossKote (Kim Scott): To your customers, the subtleties of powder coating and the struggles that you have as a powder coater to educate customers or shed light on the process. But before we dive deep into that, I want to know how long have you been powder coating in the industry and or how did you get started?

RossKote (Kim Scott): Talk me through it.

Jase Kaser: Okay. My parents started Kaser painting incorporated before I was born back in 1987 and that started as a residential painting company. So it started off with my dad painting houses and then it grew from there and went into more commercial painting. Like new construction, hospitals and schools and office buildings.

Jase Kaser: In 2004, my mom and dad added a blast facility that was just adjacent to the building. If they already. And so they started blasting and then doing, I call it liquid coating. It’s still painting, but it’s just all the painting was done inside of booth. Like high-performance industrial type coatings.

Jase Kaser: And then in 2014 is when we finally started powder coating. And so when I was younger and growing up in high school, I always worked on in the summers, usually in the Kaser painting shop staining and finishing wood.And then I would also work in the blast shop a little bit like in the blast cabinet or if our main blaster was gone or on vacation, I would get in there and try to wrangle the blast hose as a young middle school or high schooler, which can be challenging.

Jase Kaser: Just because it’s, that’s probably the most physically demanding job that we have. And then when we started the powder coating, it was 2014. So I was in college at that time. I had just finished my let’s see, fourth year, it took me five years. I went to the university of Nebraska Lincoln for mechanical engineering.

Jase Kaser: So I’ve always been interested in setting up equipment and how it all works, how it goes together. And so I was interested in helping get all the powder coating stuff set up. So over that summer, between my fourth and fifth year, so going into my senior year of college, we started putting up the powder coating oven and boots.

Jase Kaser: And I sprayed our first part and then we hired one guy to help run it. And then I finished my senior year college. And then it was, I was getting right to the end of my senior year. I was trying to decide if I wanted to go to graduate school or if I wanted to just be done with school and had my bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and just go the family business.

Jase Kaser: But it was a tough decision. I was going back and forth because I had done a lot of undergraduate research and engineering. And that particular professor really wanted me to go on and be a grad student and get my master’s and get my PhD. But the powder coating was really taken off and dad really needed my help in the sense that like he was running the Kaser painting.

Jase Kaser: So the commercial, residential painting, also the blast thing, and then the powder coating and he could run all three of them, but it was like he was the limiting factor. You can’t be in three places at once, all day, every day.And so it ultimately, it was my decision, but they really needed help.

Jase Kaser: So I was like, you know what? I have powder coated or putting stuff together. And. I am getting really tired of school. I’m not sure if I will use this master’s or PhD, cause in the long run, I wanted to get into the family business someday and then hopefully take it over. So I decided that a bachelor’s degree was enough and then started helping and jumped right in and help in the powder coating right away on the floor.

Jase Kaser: And then since then it’s grown. So that was 2015 that would’ve been when I started working at full time. That’s been five years ago now, a little over five years. So the summer of 2015 and we’ve grown a lot since then, powder coating has been our fastest growing division ever since that time. And yeah, that’s where we’re at now.

Jase Kaser: Now instead of being on the floor and doing all the work, I’m mostly in the office. Trying to organize all the work and get all of the logistical stuff done. So all of our team members can focus on their craft. Everybody’s really good at what they do. And so it’s my job to get all their obstacles out the way so they can do their job.

Jase Kaser: If our sprayers can come in and spray all day washers can come in and pre-treat all day and not have to worry about equipment breaking and running on the supplies and materials, then they can do their job a lot better. So that’s what I focus on. I’m mostly scheduling an, order being a purchaser and cloning and dealing with customers.

Jase Kaser: I still like to get on the floor when I can, because that’s usually the funest part is when you can get in and work and not have any interruptions and get sweaty and stuff. That’s fun.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. Get lost in the work and just, I always was like that with painting. Let myself work without having any, distractions and stuff like that.

RossKote (Kim Scott): The logistics is hard, it’s not that easy. You have to know it all in order to understand how to logistically set something up. And it sounds like you guys do it all then like liquid and powder you’re out both sides.

Jase Kaser: Correct, yeah. So we have our blast and liquid booth, our indoor there 18 foot wide, 15 foot tall by 50foot long.

Jase Kaser: So we can do like concrete trucks and dump trucks. We do a lot of the 40 foot shipping containers. For construction companies. They don’t have to see those as job trailers. So we have that in one of our, one of our buildings and then our other building is fully powder coating.

RossKote (Kim Scott): And as a family business, are you the only family, the son or are there other siblings.

Jase Kaser: I have a younger brother. He’s not involved in the family business. He is also a mechanical engineer. And he decided to take an engineering job right out of college. It was a really good job. And so he’s still doing that right now. And I don’t know that he has much desire to come into the family business maybe someday.

Jase Kaser: But he really likes the engineering job he has right now. So that’s where he’s at, but yeah, I do have a younger brother.

RossKote (Kim Scott): So do you and your dad, I’m assuming your mom and dad are still seem like they’re young enough, they’re still involved in the business or you’re trying to get more hands-off?

Jase Kaser: So they, I would say, so they still run the Kaser painting side.

Jase Kaser: And then what I say, I run as a Kaser of blasting and coating side. So the Kaser painting as the commercial and residential painting. Like I talked about my dad’s still there every day, there from as I am from five in the morning till five at night. And so he’s doing the day today office running the painting side.

Jase Kaser: And my mom does all of the accounting and bookkeeping for all of the, all of our divisions. So they’re still there every day. They are getting them to the point where they want to slow down a little bit, but as far as the day to daywork and decisions and the blasting of powder coating I pretty much handle all that now.

Jase Kaser: And it’s been interesting. I’ve never, I haven’t thought about it much, but when I reflect on it as I’ve been, I’m surprised how quickly my mom and dad just let me run with it. As I started going but my dad is a very, he’s also very hands-on. He likes to be involved be very particular.

Jase Kaser: But he’s letting me make my own decisions. If we have a disagreement, he’s usually the one that will back down and they’ll just kinda let me learn the hard way. Sometimes other times I’ll step in and say, I know that Idid this before and this way isn’t going to work. But they do a really good job of just letting me go ahead and run with it.

Jase Kaser: And obviously there’s when there’s big, really big decisions to make. I involve them and we all three talk about it and come up with a good decision, but I’ve never felt that I was, I don’t really feel like their son when I’mat work, so when I’m at work, I call them Jay & Sherry. I don’t call it mom and dad.

Jase Kaser: Yeah. I’m just never, it doesn’t feel like it’s mom and dad watching over me at work. It just feels like we’re we have good working relationship if we work alongside each other really well and compliment each other because I look at stuff a lot differently than they do. Cause I’m younger went to engineering school.

Jase Kaser: And I’m interested in technology and every trying to do everything faster and on the cloud and more remote and either technology to help us go faster. And they’re, used to doing this. I don’t necessarily want to say old school, but you know that older way, but they have all the experience too.

Jase Kaser: So there’s, I might have a lot of new ideas that can help, but then when I run them by them, they can give me their input okay, that might work, but don’t forget about this and this, because they’re thinking about things that I don’t think about.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. That you haven’t even, because you don’t have this much experience.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. It makes you think that, what sets Kaser apart from other powder coaters in your area?

Jase Kaser: I would say our. We pay really close attention to detail. And in general, our feed back from our customers is that our quality is usually typically better than other places. And with going along with that, we’re usually more expensive.

Jase Kaser: We hear that as a lot of feedback too, but I would say definitely our quality. We’re very particular about everything that we do and from start to finish. So there’s a lot of intricacies and blasting and coatings that the general customer doesn’t necessarily realize at the surface. And then when it comes to any kind of coating everybody thinks it’s just painting.

Jase Kaser: I can do it myself. I can go to Menards and get an aerosol can and spray paint my car, parts myself, which you can, but it’s a lot different and there’s a lot more to it than people think. When it comes down to it, it’s hard to explain to customers. And that’s what we do. Our blogs started to explain to customers when they’re coming in to drop parts up or get a quote what’s all involved and all the steps that we’re taking to make sure that their coating’s going to look good, but then also have longevity.

Jase Kaser: Cause we’re all the substrates that we coat and the Kaser blasting, coating side, it’s all metal. And so we’re going for corrosion protection is what’s really important. And obviously everybody, when it comes to powder coating, we do a lot of general public stuff, the lawn furniture, car parts, and all kinds of stuff like that.

Jase Kaser: So they’re more looking for the aesthetics, but if it’s going outside, it’s really important to have, make sure the substrates craft properly with the right blast and pretreated properly with the right chemicals or you get either paint or powder coating over the top make sure that they have a good, long lasting finish.

Jase Kaser: So I think all that attention to detail sets us aside from everybody else, but that’s hard to convey to customers really hard.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. I think that’s what I found so compelling about your blog and just for the listeners, you can actually find the blog at Kaser, K-A-S-E-R blasting.com forward slash blog. (kaserblasting.com/blog)

RossKote (Kim Scott): And I feel like when I started to read it it’s a, it’s an ode to powder coating again, if I thought, wow, this could be a training manual for the subtleties of powder coating for both consumers or your customers, and your employees. It’s a journal, it’s a journey.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I don’t know your writing style intrigued me, I don’t know if you’re doing all of the writing. How do you get, how do you get inspired to write? Is it something happens with a customer or an event happens at work, and then that’s the impetus?

Jase Kaser: It’s a combination of things. But if somebody takes the time to go through and read all of our blogs, they might be able to tell that some of them are a little more passionate and ranty than others. So sometimes it’s the frustration that triggers me to record it. Other times. It’s just, I want to help educate.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Listen Now” _builder_version=”4.17.4″ global_module=”20170″ saved_tabs=”all” global_colors_info=”{}”]